In case you did not already know, many are not happy with the administration's rules on registered lobbyists working in the administration. A New York Times article, highlights our concerns with President Obama's Executive Order on ethics and lobbying. "The assumption underlying the Obama policy, critics say, is that all lobbying is suspect, even legitimate advocacy at the heart of a democratic process." Referencing a letter sent to the White House, the piece discusses the effort to have the order amended so that registered lobbyists for tax exempt organizations are automatically granted a waiver. The April 9th letter states, "Our concerns focus on the aspects of the Executive Order that go beyond requiring transparency and penalize non-profit organizations which have registered in good faith under the LDA and have contacted government officials for a public purpose."

The New York Times highlights the paradoxical case of Tom Malinowski, the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. Malinowski was considered for a position in the administration as human rights chief, and seemed like a good choice considering his work lobbying against genocide and torture. However, he was a registered lobbyist and ultimately could not take the position.

Discouragingly, according to the article, "White House officials said there had been no internal debate on the matter and flatly dismissed the proposals, adding that they would not consider any changes because it would start the administration down a slippery slope of declaring some lobbyists acceptable and others unacceptable. 'You can't have a value judgment,' said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff." Furthermore, David Axelrod, the president's senior advisor said, "it was important to stick to the campaign promise."

Indicating that a change to the order would some how break Obama's campaign promise signals a misunderstanding. The goals of the group are the same as Obama's campaign promise; reduce the corrupting influence of money on government. However, not all lobbying is corrupt and an unwillingness to differentiate between lobbying in the public interest results in counterproductive policy.